With many years of community service on various civic ad hoc committees such as co-chair of Hart’s Diversity Committee, Santa Clarita’s Cemex Advisory Committee and the city’s Open Space Committee. Paul also has been an active participant in local issues of interests such as Whittaker-Bermite remediation, high speed rail, and chloride mandates.

The University of Southern California and the Fair Political Practices Commission are hosting a symposium on campaign finance and disclosure in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in the Citizens United case. Listed speakers include former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and legal and government experts, plus Bee columnist Dan Morain and FPPC Chairwoman Ann Ravel. The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and will be streamed live at both the FPPC website and the California Channel website. For more information, click here.

Father and son are pictured together in the flier, smiling, the young college graduate and the lame duck Democratic lawmaker whose presence helps boost campaign coffers.

Few 26-year-old novices wield such clout. Ian Calderon’s race against former Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez will be watched closely as an example of the power of family incumbency, analysts say.

“You have name recognition, you have resources,” Phillip Ung of California Common Cause, which has taken no position on the race, said of Ian’s candidacy and family ties.

For 30 years, a member of the Calderon family has held a legislative seat.

Charles is the second-highest ranking member of the Assembly. His brother Ron is a state senator and another brother, Tom, is a former assemblyman running to return to the lower house. All are Los Angeles County Democrats.

The Calderons are known as moderate Democrats with a pro-business bent. Charles said the reputation can be a mixed blessing – for example, though Ian is very pro-union, some labor groups have been slow to endorse him, he said.

The committee approved SB 1072, authored by Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, at the request of Scott.

It did so despite reservations of public health experts who think too little is known about the disease and the efficacy of stem-cell transplantation to treat it.

That therapy can be effective only if the disease is diagnosed before symptoms develop.

Dr. William Wilcox, a UCLA medical school professor and a member of the advisory board to the state’s newborn screening program, testified that the experience in New York, which has tested 1.3 million newborns, suggests mandatory testing “would not be the best option for our state.”

In the flurry surrounding the end of redevelopment, 60 state Department of Finance officials are scouring local redevelopment budgets to determine whether their claims about existing debts and obligations are legal.

Cities and other local entities that are overseeing the shutdown of redevelopment agencies were required to submit a list of their ongoing financial commitments by April 15. Now, the department has a three-day window to raise objections. Of the budgets it has reviewed so far, the department has challenged almost two dozen, including budgets from the cities of Riverside, Orange and San Leandro.

The department’s review could have serious effects on the state budget and local agencies, including school districts and counties.

Gov. Jerry Brown estimated that $3.6 billion would be distributed to local agencies over two years as a result of dissolving redevelopment agencies, offsetting $1.7 billion in state general fund costs.Additional property taxes that previously were given to redevelopment agencies could be redirected to local coffers. But if the ongoing financial commitments of the now-defunct redevelopment agencies consume the bulk of the property taxes, then there won’t be any money left to reallocate, at least in the short term.

Enjoy your morning!

Here is Dan Walters and his daily video: California high-speed rail in trouble:

The rough and tumble of intra-party politics can put a strain on even the closest of relationships. The latest exhibit of this truism came yesterday, with the announcement from the campaign of Sen. Tony Strickland that he was giving his endorsement in the 38th Assembly District primary to Patricia McKeon, wife of Rep. Buck McKean of Santa Clarita.

This came after: A) Strickland originally endorsed Republican Scott Wilk, a longtime friend, in the same race; B) Strickland decided to run for Congress after Rep. Elton Gallegly announced his decision to retire; C) Pressure was exerted in the name of solidarity within the California Republican congressional delegation that it was not a good idea for a GOP candidate to be endorsing the opponent of a congressman’s wife; and D) Strickland pulled his endorsement from Wilk to take a neutral position.

Despite lowering the proposed cost of California’s high-speed rail project to $68 billion, the Brown administration still relies on “highly speculative” funding for the project, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a report today recommending that construction funding not be approved.

The nonpartisan LAO did recommend that the Legislature approve minimal funding to continue planning for the project.

Gov. Jerry Brown and the California High-Speed Rail Authority propose to use $2.6 billion in high-speed rail bond funds and $3.3 billion in federal funds to start construction in the Central Valley by early next year.

The LAO and other critics of the project have long questioned the authority’s reliance on uncertain federal funding to complete the project, an objection raised by the LAO again today.

“Given the federal government’s current financial situation and the current focus in Washington on reducing federal spending, it is uncertain if any further funding for the high-speed rail program will become available,” the report said, which may be viewed online at this link.

Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that the state budget deficit could increase by $1 billion or more above the $9.2 billion his administration estimated in January.

Brown said that because of court challenges, weaker-than-expected tax receipts and other factors, the state’s deficit would probably grow when he releases revised budget numbers next month.

“Whether it’s $1 billion or a couple billion, we’ll let you know in a couple weeks,” Brown said after speaking to the California Medical Assn. in Sacramento.

The doctors’ group has donated more than $250,000 to Brown’s initiative for the fall ballot, which would temporarily raise taxes on sales and incomes of more than $250,000. Brown said his initiative was constructed to have the greatest chance for voter approval, even though polls show Californians are divided on the measure.

A San Francisco state senator believes California is ready for a significant change in how the state treats people arrested for possessing drugs and is proposing reducing criminal penalties, a shift he said may actually lead to a decrease in drug use.

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill that would change the punishment for possession of any illicit drug from a felony to a misdemeanor. The bill, SB1506, won support from a legislative committee Tuesday and if enacted into law would make California the 14th state in the country to classify drug possession as a lesser crime.

The federal government also classifies simple drug possession – including cocaine and heroin – as a misdemeanor. Simple drug possession means the substance is for personal use and is not intended to be sold.

Leno predicts the change would have multiple impacts, including reducing government costs and improving public safety, but also noted a potential significant social impact.

“How does that burden, which mostly affects young brown and black people, benefit any of us?” Leno said, noting a felony limits a person’s ability to get a job, housing and college aid. The current system “perpetuates a chronic underclass,” he said.

State Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, is endorsing Patricia McKeon in her bid for state Assembly, a spokesman for her campaign team revealed today.

“Tony Strickland has endorsed Patricia,” Joe Justin, of the McKeon camp said Monday.

Strickland, who in January declared his candidacy for the newly drawn 26th Congressional District seat, is expected to formally announce the endorsement later today.

This is interesting that Joe Justin is making the announcement since he is the paid political consultant for Tony Strickland AND Patricia McKeon rather than Strickland making it himself.

I don’t think this will play so well in CA-26 where Strickland although having a fundraising advantage is facing a tough general election race against either Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley or independent (no party preference) Linda Parks.

Might I note that the Ventura County Republican Party has overwhlemingly endorsed Scott Wilk in this assembly race.

And, I don’t think Strickland’s older mentor, Rep.Tom McClintock who has endorsed Scott Wilk and will be fundraising soon for him will be too pleased with this turn of events. In fact, I have already heard from a few Republican activists in CA-26 who are considering voting for Linda Parks.

California may be dismantling its prison-industrial complex, but it’s quickly replacing it with a jail-industrial complex, a new report released late Tuesday warns.

The state’s prison population has plummeted — by 22,440 inmates, or about 15 percent — since October, according to the report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. That’s when the state responded to a court order to reduce overcrowding by adopting realignment, which shifts responsibility to counties for imprisoning and rehabilitating nonviolent felons.

But now, according to the ACLU, the state is funneling billions of dollars to counties, much of it for building or expanding jails, instead of for cheaper alternatives called for in the realignment law — including electronic monitoring, drug treatment and vocational training. The report is the first comprehensive critique of realignment since the massive plan was adopted six months ago.

“The state says locking people up hasn’t worked,” said Allen Hopper, police practices director of the ACLU of Northern California. “But on the other hand, it turns over billions to maintain the status quo,” he said.

Beginning in 2007, the state has awarded about $1.2 billion to 22 counties for jail construction, including $602 million early this month to 11 counties for the expansion or construction of jails. The state also gave counties about $400 million this fiscal year to spend on whatever mix of incarceration, supervision and programs they choose.

The report contends counties could easily reduce their jail populations and save money without endangering public safety, principally by releasing more inmates awaiting trial on their own recognizance or under supervision. About 71 percent of the inmates languishing in California’s jails are awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of any offense.

A decade-old California law and 2010 census data are having a potentially explosive effect on how governing boards of local governments, especially cities, are elected.

While all counties and larger cities and school districts have long elected their governing boards from single-member districts, smaller jurisdictions have usually used “at-large” elections in which members are elected by all voters.

It’s long been a bone of civic and political contention, with members of non-white ethnic groups complaining that at-large elections deny them opportunities to place members of their communities in positions of civic power.

Throughout the state, the issue has often been joined via local ballot measures to switch to district voting, with some successful and some not.

The wreckage of California’s real estate crash is still washing up on the shoreline.

California, Florida and Illinois accounted for more than a third of the nation’s 1.6 million housing units classified as shadow inventory in January, according to CoreLogic, a Santa Ana-based mortgage-tracking company.

CoreLogic defines shadow inventory as properties with 90 days-plus delinquencies, foreclosures or those that are lender-owned.

On a year-over-year basis, CoreLogic said Wednesday that U.S. shadow inventory was down from January 2011, when it stood at 1.8 million units, or eight months’ supply.

This year’s January total, which CoreLogic equated to six months’ supply, virtually matched that reported in October last year.

CoreLogic said shadow inventory growth has been offset by the roughly equal flow of distressed sales – short and lender-owned.

“Almost half of the shadow inventory is not yet in the foreclosure process,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “Shadow inventory also remains concentrated in states impacted by sharp price declines and states with long foreclosure timelines.”

By definition, that includes California. And as a byproduct, the Sacramento region.

There’s a very long way to go between here and there, but as the campaign season gets under way, Supervisor Linda Parks of Thousand Oaks has a very good chance of making history this year as independent running for Congress. Which is another way of saying that she could actually win.

That conclusion is based on a poll conducted by Parks’ campaign team of Gorton Blair Biggs International, headed by former Pete Wilson strategist George Gorton, whose storied career in political consulting includes a tie-in with Watergate as a youth-vote adviser to President Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign (he paid someone to spy on anti-war protesters) and a major role in helping to elect Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Federation (the film “Spinning Boris” was based on that, with Jeff Goldblum playing the role of Gorton).

Parks’ team yesterday shared with me a polling memo in the 26th Congressional District. Although short on details of the actual poll, the memo makes three things clear: Parks is now running in a strong second place in the primary, none of the four Democratic candidates is particularly well known, and that the Thousand Oaks supervisor has a statistically significant lead in a hypothetical November matchup against Republican Tony Strickland.

Enjoy your morning!

Here is Dan Walter’s on the Irony of Politics and Initiative Signature Gathering: